I knew we were in for some weather when I saw Spencer jump up in Danny's lap.
Danny said, "He's shaking."
Immediately, we knew there must be thunder so faint we couldn't hear it, but Spencer did.
Sure enough a few minutes later we started to see the sky and boat light up with distant lightning as we saw the first rain drops start to hit the windows. The weather report called for intermittent thunderstorms, south-west winds increasing in the afternoon with 20 knot gusts and rain. On top of that we knew that Buzzards Bay could get very rough if the current was west, the way we had to travel.
Cape Cod Canal RailRoad Bridge
Captain Eric from Gloucester, MA put it this way, "Under the right conditions, the channel all the way out to Wings Neck and beyond can present truly violent sea conditions, with short period, steep faced, 6-8' waves. It will be the pounding of a lifetime for many boaters. What are the conditions? Outgoing tide and a SW wind (which is the prevailing wind). All the water flows in the channel because it's so much deeper than the surrounding waters, and the winds funnel up the bay. It's Hell on water."
We needed to get out at slack tide, so we left as soon as the thunderstorm passed us by. It was a smooth ride out but we could see where the current was starting to kick up. Beth, now focused on the weather, spotted another area on the computer radar indicating that another storm was headed right for us.
Agitated she pointed at the computer, "See this yellow and red color doesn't bother me its the purple that we have to watch out for! We need to find shelter before this gets to us."
Storms a brewing!
Quickly, we plotted a course for a protected bay, Mattapoisett. What a pretty well sheltered bay. We set anchor in 10 feet of water a respectable distance from another sail boat who was obviously doing the same thing. We watched as the multicolored storm moved toward us at 26 mph.
Beth, glued to the computer blurted, "Look it turned! It's going around us!" We watched as the storm went out into Buzzard's Bay. We again heard distant thunder as the rain washed the salt off the boat. Waiting patiently for the last of the storm to pass, we saw the sailboat starting to leave, quickly pulled in our anchor and followed it out of the harbor.
As the incoming ocean swells gently lifted the bow we had only 1 to 2 foot seas all the way to Point Judith. The swells became more noticeable as we turned and caught them on our beam but the stabilizers acted to dull the roll. We continued on through a fog bank which cleared within a couple of miles and enjoyed sunshine the rest of the way to the harbor of refuge known as Point Judith.
A narrow entrance with lots of current, Point Judith opened up to a substantial bay with a sandy beach. A rock jetty protected us from large ocean swells, which broke down to smaller swells rounding through the entrance. There were a number of small boats on moorings and a group of kids were playing in kayak's right where we preferred to anchor so we circled until we found a 14 foot depth than dropped and backed down on the anchor. We got a good set, which, I felt would hold us through the predicted increased winds and potential turning tide in the middle of the night.
Danny, was especially helpful in picking out the intermittent lobster pots. His hunting skills, I think helped. How so? He seems to have especially good eye site for anything that moves. He could see pots 3 or 4 minutes before me because they would "pop up". Also, he is tall and has a better range down channel.
He also noticed that the windshield wipers were starting to separate. In no time we located an exact replacement, ordered them and had them shipped to Brewer Marina in Port Washington on Long Island Sound. We should be there in 2 days to pick them up.
Another beautiful evening!
Three in the morning and something was banging up against our swim platform. Everybody is up. Apparently the wind came up and with increasing pressure on the boat caused our chain to stretch out placing the rear of the boat over top of a mooring ball. We worried that the tether to the ball would get wrapped up in our prop but we eventually floated right over it. It will no doubt be a long day today and I think I see a nap in the lazy boy in my future.
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